End Human Trafficking- Support Sexworker Self-Efficacy

Hillary McQuie a harm reduction advocate from San Francisco has created this petition to support sex workers rights efforts and to address the scapegoating of craigslist. I hope our readers on Harlots will support this petition and perhaps forward it to other lists and blogs.

The petiton reads :

We support self-efficacy and harm reduction by sex workers, and oppose the scapegoating of Craigslist for posting “Adult Services” ads. We share the goals of the craigslist opponents to end human trafficking, forced prostitution, and child exploitation, but know that driving the sex trade more underground accomplishes just the opposite.

“Adult services” encompasses a range of activity. Advertising those services is not illegal, and indeed, if there was legal cause, it would have been forced to close long ago. The reason there is not legal cause is that such a broad ban would limit constitutional rights.

The paternalism of some of the groups opposed to Adult Services ads is sadly over-generalized to fully-empowered women and men who choose to independently market erotic services. Those who exploit children and traffic in human lives merely win competitive advantage when independent providers are driven into the shadows.

Let us work together to end violence towards sex workers and let them speak for themselves.